Brian Lumley - Necroscope - Invaders

'Or it was one of the sources. For, of course, Malinari was right: what's in the blood will out in the flesh. But it takes two to make a bloodson, a vampire born of woman, and The Mind's mother was a Szgany healer, whose power was in her hands. Do you understand the principle? She could cure the sick and the fevered by holding them, stroking them, by balming them with her lullabies and her loving touch. Ah, but I see that there are such in your world, too… faith healers, yes. And I also see that some are fakers, here as in my world. But Illula was the real thing.

'So, hunting in Sunside one night Giorgas found Illula the Healer — who had no man, for she had given her life over to her calling — and saw that she was beautiful. He had heard of her; the Wamphyri had their spies in Sunside, and little escaped the notice of the Starside Lords. However, there was no requirement for a healer in Giorgas's manse or in any of the aeries, for common ailments were unheard of among the Wamphyri, whose systems are so imbued with evil that lesser evils can gain no foothold. I exclude, of course, the various mutations, autisms, metamorphisms and madnesses with which the Great Vampires were ever afflicted, if afflicted is the right word. For apart from lunacy — oh, yes, and leprosy, the so-called "bane of vampires" — these other conditions were rarely considered illnesses at all; they were simply facts of life and longevity. For where men in their old age are prone to aches and pains, vampires in theirs are prone to all manner of weirdness.

'At any rate, while Illula's skills were of little use to Giorgas, her beauty — not to mention her virginity, which was a rarity in females of an age, even in Sunside — was a sure fascination. And of course he had the latter from her, then had her to wife. Yes, for Giorgas wanted sons to manage his aerie, and where better to get them than from a handsome woman? According to Lord Malinari, his sire was not without good looks himself; which perhaps accounts for The Mind's darkly handsome appearance.

'Ah, but the rare combination of Malinari's parents' talents accounted for a lot more than his merely physical attributes…

'So, Illula the Healer was vampirized, and of course suffered the sleep of change. When she awakened, she was Wamphyri! And Giorgas's manse now had both master and mistress. But if men should be careful in choosing their wives, how much more careful in the making of vampires? Especially Great Vampires.

'Anyway, Illula was Wamphyri, and a deal of Giorgas's essence was circulating within her; even the first nodes and

filaments and foetal foulness of a parasite leech, gathering to her spine to suck on its marrow. That is ever the way of it. But as if to compensate for such depredations, the burgeoning vampire invariably accentuates the senses of the initiate. Not only the five mundane senses, but also — when such enhancement is of benefit to the parasite — any additional senses…

'Illula and Giorgas shared a bed and, of course — being his wife now and a Great Vampire in her own right — she clung to him through long Starside days, when the spires of the tallest aeries glowed golden in the seething rays from Sunside. And when her Lord started or moaned in his sleep (for even the most terrible of the Wamphyri are prone to nightmares, and some even more so, which usually spring from memories of their own conversions or initiations), then she would employ her healer's hands to soothe his brow and her soft-crooned lullabies to drive away whichever terrors invaded his dreams. But in the twilight before the night — when despite her ministrations he would come awake showing little or no benefit from his rest — then Illula would be nonplussed; and Lord Malin, he would laze around Malstack as if suffering from a crippling malaise… which he was. And she was it.

'The fault lay in her once-healing hands, her once-calming songs, her once-balming presence. For now, enhanced by Giorgas's vampire essence and her ascension, her healing powers were reversed. Before, where Illula had given life — or at least given it back — now she drew it off. She battened on it like… why, like a vampire, naturally! For even if she would have it otherwise, her vampire would not. And there never was a vampire who gave of life, nor would there ever be.

'Thus Giorgas's life-force was drawn from him, and while he grew weak she grew strong, and her vampire stronger still. Wamphyri, aye, and what a monster she would have made. Except that wasn't to be.

'For she was pregnant by Giorgas, and on the day he died gave birth to a boy child whom she called Nephran, because that is the Szgany word for a wrong that may not be righted. And she knew that bringing this child into the world was wrong, but her mothering instinct made her keep him. As for his surname: certain tribes (Illula's being one such) used "ari" as an alternative to "son". Thus instead of Malinson, he became Nephran Malinari.

'And as he grew to a man so the strange mixture or mutation of the joint skills of both of his parents — that which had been in their blood — came out in his flesh and grew with him. But unlike his father's half-mentalism, Nephran's was whole and wholly monstrous, and unlike Illula's healing touch, his was an evil life-devouring Power right from the beginning. And in combination these altered talents matured into the form which made him what he was and what he still is: Malinari the Mind. 'His love of music, he got that from his mother. Likewise his blinding headaches: she also passed those down to him. For, as a healer in Sunside, that had been her payment — or lack of payment — for the good works she did: something of the illnesses of her patients transferred to her, presumably so that they might be cured! But in Nephran these migraines were made worse, complicated by the tumultuous, pounding thoughts of others.

'Well, and there we have the man. As for his mother: 'As time passed Illula's mind slowly slipped from her… or at least, the problems started with her mind. But gradually she developed so many illnesses in her body, boils and bruises, cankers and gangrenes, aches and pains and general disabilities, that her vampire was hard put to keep up. Let her parasite cure one disorder, another would spring up in its place. In Illula's more lucid moments, she would try to explain these things away: they were all the ailments she had cured in Sunside, now coming out in her. For her capacity for good had been robbed from her, and with it whatever was in her that kept these evils at bay.

'She might have died a slow death, or Malinari might have seen fit to put her away, but it didn't come to that. Illula's time

was up and she knew it. When her son was eighteen she gave him Malstack, took a flyer and flew back to Sunside in the twilight before the dawn. Over the barrier mountains the sun found her, and she and her flyer both paid their dues in smoke, steam and stench.

'Well, and so much for Nephran Malinari's beginnings.' With which, finally, Korath was finished. For a while, at least…

Korath, you've done well so far, said Harry. But his deadspeak voice was noticeably fainter now. And before the extinct vampire could begin preening, Jake queried:

'Are you all right, Harry?'

I am… called to many places, the other answered. I can be me as a boy, and as a man, or I can stand off and, watch myself as I was. But I'm not much for doing what's already been done. And there are places to be where I need to be a lot more completely than I am here. None of which will make much sense to you, I know. But physically, I can effect very little here, except I do it through you.

And Korath added, hopefully: And through me?

But Harry shook his incorporeal head. You are less than I am. You can affect nothing, unless someone were foolish enough to let you get too deep into his mind, into his bones— which isn't going to happen. Jake, be warned: this Korath was a four~hundred-y ear-old vampire. If you should ever need to speak to him again, don't open your mind to him, not all the way. Never let him in, or you could end up carrying him. with you forever.